Cardboard Kingdom

The new and absurd: cardboard bedding. I'm always one for charity, so I like the company's social activism (a portion of the proceeds benefit an organization fighting homelessness), but the design (which merely LOOKS like cardboard) strikes me as a bit odd. To some extent, the design mirrors the vintage, beat up look that's popular now, but in my opinion, this design takes it too far. The site features a picture of someone sleeping on a bench with a comforter and pillow from the line... It's almost offensive—people who can afford nice bedding sleeping in "faux" cardboard linens as a fashion statement.

There's Nothing Funny About Design

Ellen Lupton interviews David Barringer in this interesting article on Design Observer. As a graphic design student at a well-regarded design school, it's interesting to read his opinions about formal schooling (Barringer is self-taught).

This quote from Barringer especially struck me:

Hybrid writing forms are perfect for design, because design itself is a hybrid of art, business and culture. Design is an eye of many storms. So it’s because of design’s great connectedness to art, business and culture that I have in mind a reader who might be a designer but could be any creative person, an artist, photographer, or writer, or someone who, like me, can’t help having fun thinking about what the world means.

As someone who enjoys all types of art, writing, and business, I came to graphic design looking for a fusion of the three. I hope to pick up this book as a summer read!

Adding to Ads

This post on Core77 about "product re-placement" is similar to things I'm seeing a lot of on design blogs lately. A number of artists are finding ways of replacing or altering ads in public spaces in order to "reclaim" these spaces for art, communication, or satire. One recently publicized example is Poster Boy, the New York-based "artist" who literally cuts and pastes pieces of subway advertisements onto one another to create new, often humorous pieces. It seems the public is growing tired of the increasingly invasive advertising industry's efforts to sell products and services, and instead of quietly absorbing them, people are defacing, adjusting, or otherwise creating new messages and visuals to absorb. It will be interesting to see how the advertising industry deals with this threat; my thought is that those who are smartest will work with, and not against, this trend.

Doodle

I'm interested to see if Doodle, the app covered in this posting on Swissmiss, will become popular in the United States. According to Swissmiss, it's currently enjoying popularity in Switzerland. The app allows users to create polls and schedule events.

I checked out the site, and I'm not entirely sure what it has to offer that Outlook, Gmail calendars, and email do not. While making polls is a fun feature, it doesn't seem like a commonly-enough used process to warrant a unique application. The polls seem less advanced than those created by sites like SurveyMonkey, so I doubt the app is prized for its ability to survey large groups of people more effectively than other sites.

Memory Lane

Seth Godin's post Nostalgia is a basic human emotion asserts that, like joy or greed, nostalgia is a basic human emotion that should be addressed in marketing. He believes this "emotion" has been overlooked, save for the efforts of a small few companies.

I tend to disagree that nostalgia has been wholly overlooked. Rather, in today's market, many companies are tapping into customers' nostalgia. Amidst a recession, customers long for a simpler, easier, and more profitable time. Many companies have been savvy enough to make use of--and sometimes exploit--this desire for simplicity, often tying it to the green movement. Even a choice of materials—glass over plastic, organic cotton over synthetic textiles—signals this sense of nostalgia.

Some examples of nostalgia being used in today's market: the desire for organic produce (as used by Whole Foods); a return to analog photography (Lomo); the resurgance of vintage and antique goods' popularity; the use of more "classic" or retro packaging, such as with both Coca Cola and Pepsi; and the return of old-style trends. Even the hand-drawn type aesthetic (as discussed in my recent post) signals a desire to return to a time before machines mass-produced goods with an impersonal look. It will be interesting to see how long this trend continues and how it will evolve.

Innovation in a Recession

Nussbaum's post How Do you Innovate In A Recession mentions some brands and products that are thriving amidst the recession. My thought is that recession inherently forces innovation. Creatives must make do with fewer resources, which often inspires greater creativity and innovation. It's a challenge—but a worthwhile and often fruitful one.

Photoshop Finish

In this week's New York Times, the article Smile and Say 'No Photoshop' points to the dangerous results of an overuse of Photoshop. As the article points out, more and more people are calling for the banning of retouching in magazines; "Artifice, in general, feels very five years ago," it states. It's a statement not altogether different from the backlash against computer-driven typefaces; people are craving a more humanistic, less mechanical design aesthetic. As countries like France seek to decrease the use of photo retouching in their publications, it will be interesting to see how the American market follows suit (or doesn't). Regardless, it's a debate that places graphic designers (in the form of graphic retouchers) front and center.

Vendor-Client Relations

Sadly, this video—as seen on Swissmiss—is all too true. It seems that, because design is an unknown craft to most people, they see it as an unquantifiable or negotiable service. When this attitude is placed in the context of other service industries (such as a restaurant or salon), as it is in the video, it quickly becomes apparent just how ridiculous this notion is. One could hope that as design becomes more central to commerce, this practice would slowly diminish; however, as the number of designers increases and the number of jobs decrease, my fear is that some designers will continue to underprice their work, making it difficult for those who abide by the Pricing & Ethical Guidelines standards.

Name your price

I found this posting, entitled How Much is that Artifact in the Window, on Design Observer to be interesting. So many artistic people become graphic designers because they want their work to be accessible, not framed preciously on the walls of an expensive gallery. Heller explores the intricacies of pricing graphic works produced in large runs, and it seems that many of these works are priced according to the same guidelines as fine art (fame of the artist; scarcity; place in design history).

How much would you pay for this Milton Glaser
Dylan poster?

What's in a name?

Seth Godin's post On becoming a household name is quite insightful. Much of the time, people choose products or services simply because they're familiar with it—thus ignoring the value or appropriateness of the product itself. Though I often wonder about the efficacy of banner ads, I certainly see his point: once you stop seeing the ads as drivers of web traffic and start seeing them simply as brand name builders, they take on a whole new meaning. In such a light, brand "skins" (such as the often-changing background on gossip site Perez Hilton) or page takeovers (in which all the advertisements on a webpage are from the same company) become particularly powerful. Even if the viewer is not actively engaging with the ad—something he/she isn't likely to do, due to his/her distraction by the site content—he/she is still subconsciously absorbing the brand name displayed on the advertisements.

The Cost of Creative Careers

Bruce Nussbaum's post on the decline in jobs for creatives is, obviously, worrisome for those of us getting our degrees in creative industries. I find the numbers he reports somewhat surprising. It seems to me that, due to the poor economy, so many companies are revamping their image campaigns and visual identities (see: Pepsi, Duane Reade, Tropicana, etc.) in efforts to turn around their business. Why, then, is there not a wealth of jobs for creatives? Is it simply because there is a decrease in the number of new companies, paired with the closing of some older, more established companies?

(Bad Time to Graduate for Creatives—Let's Change That, Nussbaum on Design)

Regenesi Sustainable Products

I enjoyed Cool Hunting's post on Regenesi Sustainable Products. The products are incredibly well designed—consistent with their Italian roots—but also make use of recycled and sustainable materials. While the "green" trend is often used as a marketing ploy these days, it's still a good trend to see popularized, as we can all do our bit to save the earth. Check out Regenesi goods here.

Made by hand

I enjoyed Steven Heller's blog posting about hand lettering on NY Times blog The Moment. I personally love the hand lettering look and think it adds a new dimensionality to typography that is often lost amidst sometimes bland computerized type. Replacing the stale, mechanical feeling of computer-rendered typefaces, hand-drawn typography lends a humanistic quality that often communicates volumes more than do the perfected strokes of traditional typefaces. This humanistic imperfection evokes a youthful, "indie" feeling, rebelling against the droning corporate mainstream. Ironically, the use of hand lettering has been adapted by the mainstream, as well as by independents; however, when used for large corporations, it is usually intended to distance the company from the corporate stereotype. Regardless, hand lettering has now become a widespread trend, and it is one that I enjoy for its democritization of design, personality, and youthful feeling.

Some examples of hand rendered typography as seen on book covers—one
of the books being one of my favorites, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

Mike Perry's book Hand Job serves as a catalog of
hand-drawn type.

(Hand Lettering, The Moment)

Mockett to me

This post on Core77 details some cool—yet practical—objects for around the house. Mockett offers products ranging from hardware to cable concealers, yet all are made with design in mind. The products look incredibly simple and clean, a look that is difficult to execute while maintaining complete utility and functionality. Who knew shopping for wire managers could be fun?